A Saudi who flew to the United States with a pressure cooker in his suitcase was arrested at Detroit airport after officials spotted a page missing from his passport, court documents filed Monday showed.
He was arrested on suspicion of attempting to enter the United States with a “mutilated and altered passport” and making “misrepresented statements” but has not yet been formally charged with a crime.
The arrest comes as America remains on heightened alert a month after a pair pressure cookers packed with explosives were used in a bombing at the Boston Marathon with left three people dead and more than 260 wounded.
Hussain Al Khawahir told border control agents he was bringing the pressure cooker to his nephew, who is attending university in Toledo, Ohio.
He initially told the agents that he was bringing it because his nephew couldn’t buy one in the United States.
He then admitted that his nephew had bought a pressure cooker but “it was cheap” and had broken after the first use, charging papers said.
Khawahir, who flew from Saudi Arabia to Detroit with a stopover in Amsterdam on Saturday, is set to appear in federal court on Tuesday for a detention hearing, prosecutors said.
Saudi man with pressure cooker arrested at Detroit airport
